IIT Guwahati develops multi-stage clinical trial method for personalised medical care

Guwahati (Assam) [India], February 3 (ANI): Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, in partnership with leading institutions around the world, have devised an innovative multi-stage clinical trial method that aims to revolutionise personalised medical care.
This cutting-edge approach customises treatment regimens in real time based on each patient's individual responses during trials, resulting in highly customised and effective healthcare solutions, as per the press release.
The research, conducted in partnership with Duke-NUS Medical School, the National University of Singapore, Singapore, and the University of Michigan, USA, focuses on Dynamic Treatment Regimes (DTRs) designed through Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomised Trials (SMARTs).
DTRs are advanced decision rules that adapt treatments dynamically as a patient's condition evolves. For example, if a diabetes patient does not respond well to an initial medication, the DTR might recommend switching drugs or combining therapies. By incorporating intermediate outcomes, such as changes in blood sugar levels, DTRs move beyond the one-size-fits-all model, tailoring care to individual progress and needs.
Traditional SMART trials assign patients to treatment arms in equal numbers, even when some treatments prove less effective, based on interim data. This often leads to unnecessary treatment failures. Dr Palash Ghosh and his team have developed an adaptive randomisation method that dynamically assigns patients to treatment arms based on real-time trial data by optimally changing the patient allocation ratios in favour of a better-performing treatment sequence at that point time of the trial.
Speaking about the research Dr. Palash Ghosh, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, IIT Guwahati, said in a statement, "Adaptive designs like this would encourage more patient participation in clinical trials like SMART. When patients see they are receiving treatments tailored to their needs, they are more likely to stay engaged. This approach also has vast potential for public health interventions, such as tailoring substance abuse recovery plans to individual needs as well as in other chronic diseases."
Next Story